Dr. Oc
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2010
- Messages
- 46
I admit that I am relatively new to the NC kokanee scene but I have been fishing for them ~6 yrs. now. I have seen in that short a period of time a very noticeable increase in the number of folks fishing for them and it concerns me. 6 years ago I noted 2 boats fishing for them in an entire week. This past month there were as many as 6 on a single weekend day and as many as 4-5 on each of the weekdays. I know someone in the NCWC and asked a few questions about the fishery that they did not know the answers to and said they'd pass it along. Within the week I had calls from 2 different people within the NCWC that did. The discussions were interesting and informative...and might surprise you. It did me, anyway. First, although they understand what a unique fishery it is for NC they are not very concerned about it and monitor it in an extremely limited fashion. Funding is only a part of the problem. They consider kokanee to be "exotics", i.e a non-native species, and therefore their continued existence in NC has a very low priority. The persistence of the population since stocking was discontinued 50 yrs ago is seen as little more than a aberration and a curiosity. We discussed changing that stance and, perhaps, trying to improve the fishery by considering many variables including seasons, tighter limits or even becoming hatchery supported like many of the western lakes. Little money and low interest makes that unlikely. The low nutrient level of the lake is suspected of being a significant limiting factor to growth/size and carrying capacity of the lake's population, in any case, but they don't know for sure. They have absolutely no idea what the population is, what the annual take is or what kind of pressure it can stand. The limit was set many years ago and somewhat arbitrarily. Catch & release mortality of the smaller fish is unknown, but suspected of being very high in the summer months, like stripers. Fishing pressure's effect on the breeding population has never been assessed. In fact, they have never performed an Oct. spawning adult count since the spawning area "is in a private section of the river", i.e The Rainbow Springs Club. NCWC doesn't know if its 20, 200 or 2000, though I would suspect its in the low end. The Club may have counts and records of such but the NCWC has never asked them for data nor to collect data for them. The NCWC is reluctant to ask for permission to access club property for information gathering purposes and their manpower is limited anyway and almost exclusively spent on assessing trout populations. The NCWC suspects the Kokanee population is quite small since fishing success is erratic, sonar recordings are sporadic and limited gill-netting, yes...gill-netting, across the river in the Oct. spawning season in years past has netted as few as 0 on some days and the most they could recall was a 5 fish day. Several of you have been at this a much longer time (Ron, Mark, Fred, Dale & others) and if you get a chance to speak with either Doug Besler or Powell Wheeler, (or anyone else) let them know your thoughts and concerns. It would be a real tragedy to see this unique fishery decline or disappear. The NCWC's stance at this time would be to NOT replace it if it does. Just my 2 cents. Any comments or info appreciated.
